"The worry thing has taken me by surprise a bit because I'm well aware she's going to be 18 in December so of course she's absolutely entitled to her freedom and to go out and have a good time but it's easy to forget what we were like, so I do have to remind myself to get off her case."īy Clare's side from those early Transit van journeys, right through to their shared teenage daughter angst, is her husband Stephen, with whom she co-wrote one of Altered Images' biggest hits Don't Talk To Me About Love.īut love at first sight, it definitely wasn't. "I've just got this absolutely overwhelming desire to protect her, which is probably a bit unbearable for Ellie sometimes, but I just can't help it. "I didn't suspect that I would be quite so worried all the time," she says. Having a lot more life experience has really helped but being a product of great parenting has been invaluable." She lost her father - who was 93 and suffering from dementia - just before the pandemic, 13 years after her mother died prematurely from a bug caught in hospital in 2007.Īnd unlike her own parents, who reluctantly allowed their adventurous daughter to spread her wings, Clare admits that she's struggling to let go of the apron strings. "But parenting is definitely the toughest gig. "I became a mum for the first time at 43, which was an absolute joy for me," says Clare. It was there from the word go and it was always going to be a part of me."Īfter two years of gruelling adoption interviews, meetings and background checks, Ellie eventually arrived and is clearly the apple of her mother's eye. "Even in those earlyAltered Images days I talked about wanting to be a mum. "Where did I get that drive? I just honestly couldn't accept that it wasn't going to be my story. I love being the cheerleader of that."Ĭlare is also a big cheerleader for her daughter Ellie, who she and Stephen adopted in 2004 after an emotionally draining decade of six miscarriages and four failed IVF attempts. "It makes me feel that everyone in the room, we are all genuinely in it together. I very rarely get through a show without crying, just feeling you're in a moment with people. "That feeling of connection is overwhelming. "Did I become an unbearable show off at home? Not really, but my goodness such a big part of me is standing on a stage having lots of people look at me and liking it. "After bingeing on crisps and wine like the rest of the country, by the second lockdown I needed to do something constructive and focusing on the album really helped me through that. "I love being on stage on a level that really surprised me when it got taken away," she says. She also popped up on Skins andWaterloo Road and will be back on cinema screens again this September in an Alan Cumming movie called My Old School.Īlways an on-stage extrovert, lockdown brought home to her how much she craves the thrill of live performance. I just felt allowed to say what I really thought and to be a bit bolder about it."įollowing Altered Images' original split in 1983, Clare carved out a successful acting career, with roles in Red Dwarf, Father Ted and EastEnders - including a love scene with Ian Beale. "In the same way a teenager needs to be heard, I suddenly felt I really needed to be heard. You almost lose the ability to edit yourself and creatively that's quite interesting. "You have this feeling of being right," she says, "so with me and a teenager in the house, my husband had a lot of fun! She admits that with all the fluctuating hormone levels it was a bit of a challenge for Stephen. "There's something quite similar about being a teenager and reaching the menopause because you're pretty crazy and everything becomes a bit more intense."Ĭlare knows a bit about that, having spent lockdown with her husband and their adopted daughter Ellie, now 17. "I had that fearlessness of youth the first time round but I think I learnt early that I am quite thin-skinned. "Although I'm a more confident person now, which comes with age and maturity, this album is incredibly personal so I'm as terrified of putting this one out as I was the last time," says Clare.
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